Franklin Township is nearing the finish line on its zoning ordinance, with an eye on regulating data center development.

A resident asked at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting if the township has any laws, regulations or ordinances regarding data centers.

Board Chairman Nick Storm said. “It’s something that’s definitely come up.”

“In the conversation we have talked with our engineer about it as far as how to handle it,” said Storm, adding that right now they have so much other stuff going on that they’ve been pretty tied up with that stuff.

Supervisor Fred Kemmerer Jr. said right now “we’re in the midst of doing our zoning over.”

“I think that it’s a good thing where we’re at right now because we are working on the new zoning, and then when we are working on the new zoning that opens up a whole plethora of anything that we want to dive into so we’re not pushed with a curative amendment,” Kemmerer said. “If we don’t have a use for something like, let’s say data centers, let’s say we don’t specifically have a spot where we want data centers, they could come in and dictate what the rules are for their data centers.

“We don’t want to go down the path of curative amendments, because it’s not a fun path, and it’s one where we pretty much have to do what they ask within reason.”

Kemmerer then suggested that “as far as where we are as a municipality, given our 1972 zoning, we are super vulnerable to data center rules.”

Township solicitor Tom Nanovic noted other townships he’s representing are all amending their ordinance to address that.

“I wouldn’t wait a year to address it,” Nanovic said. “I think you ought to move it to the front burner then to the back burner.”

Resident Jill Renfrew asked the board what the township is doing with its zoning ordinance.

“Are we actively revising it?” Renfrew asked. “I agree with Tom, that we ought to have data centers as something that we’re working on right away.”

Kemmerer told Renfrew he knows the township had revised it grammatically.

“I think we’re at the finish line with it,” Kemmerer said. “We were super active with it, then we decided that we were going to try to buy a building, and we put it on the back burner, then we were fighting with solar farms and we did that portion of the zoning, and we haven’t gotten to a point where we had enough time to breathe to take that on, but right now I think that we’re in a good spot to do so if the other guys are on board with it.”

Storm said to count him in.

“I’m on board,” Storm said. “I’ve been waiting for that to be done for seven years probably.”

Renfrew then asked if by next month’s meeting there would be an update, to which Kemmerer Jr. said he would provide an update.